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HOUSTON (May 20, 2002)--To further enable designers of real-time embedded applications to pinpoint and resolve real-time problems quickly and precisely, Texas Instruments Inc. introduced the fastest generation of JTAG emulation technology as part of its real-time eXpressDSP Software and Development Tools. Compatible with previous TI emulators, the new technology features a high-speed Real-Time Data Exchange (RTDX) that transfers data bidirectionally between the target processor and the host development platform at more than two megabytes per second (MB/s) for unprecedented levels of real-time application visibility. It also offers code download speeds at up to half a megabyte per second, enabling rapid startup of larger applications. In addition, the new emulator supports XDS Advanced Event Triggering for real-time, nonintrusive debugging and maximum user control in real-time DSP and ARM processors.
The key issue for real-time developers today is "vanishing visibility," or the increasingly difficult challenge of seeing into the real-time behavior of an executing application. Visibility diminishes as processor speeds increase, and more peripherals, buses, and other system components are embedded on the devices. TI has addressed this problem by introducing the XDS560 PCI Bus JTAG Scan-Based Emulator, which represents a major advance in emulation technology.
"TI pioneered basic visibility techniques for system development of real-time applications over a decade ago with the invention of JTAG emulation, which is now the industry standard," said Bill Novak, emulation technology product manager, TI. "TI is now taking that key innovation to the next level with the XDS560, delivering unequaled levels of visibility and control to real-time developers."
The Real-Time Answer to Vanishing Visibility
The XDS560 emulator is the first DSP emulator to offer high-speed RTDX bidirectional data transfer rates of more than 2 MB/s between the target processor and the host. Previous-generation XDS510-class emulators supported a form of RTDX called standard RTDX, which is enabled on all TMS320C5000, TMS320C6000, and ARM processors, and is capable of data rates in the range of 10–20 kB/s. The XDS560 also supports standard RTDX on all C5000, C6000, and ARM processors, and improves its performance, but also offers high-speed RTDX for enabled processors at data rates of more than 2 MB/s, which is more than 100× faster than standard RTDX over the XDS510.
With this 100× improvement in bandwidth and performance far beyond any other competitive [WEN1] technology available in the industry, the XDS560 enables an entire new class of applications to take advantage of RTDX capabilities, including wireless base stations and streaming video servers. The RTDX data are available from TI's Code Composer Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) through an industry-standard Microsoft Component Object Model (COM) interface to ensure compatibility with other data visualization and analysis applications such as Microsoft Excel and MathWorks MATLAB.
Through the XDS560's compatibility with XDS510-class emulators, developers using the previous-generation XDS510-class products can improve their capabilities to support the latest features in the newest processors simply by plugging in the XDS560. This protects significant existing customer investments in everything from development tools to custom-built or purchased target boards, RTDX instrumentation, testing harnesses, and training in the environment.
Increased Code Download Speeds Improve Developer Productivity
Another major enhancement with the new XDS560 emulator is the significant increase in code download speeds, up to 8× faster than the XDS510 emulator. As applications become steadily larger, the time spent waiting for embedded code to be downloaded gets longer. Extended program download times are nonproductive and frustrating for developers. TI mitigates this delay by offering top-performance code download speeds up to half a megabyte per second, allowing designers the chance to save precious development time and stay focused on their task.
Powerful, Real-Time, Nonintrusive Event Triggering Speeds Debug
A key capability of the XDS560 emulator is Advanced Event Triggering. This allows complex sequences of events to be defined and evaluated nonintrusively in real time before halting the CPU or taking an alternate action. An advanced user interface makes setting even complex conditions simple and uniform across all processors. Together, these features allow designers to get to market faster by enabling even difficult intermittent real-time software problems to be analyzed and fixed more quickly.
Third Parties Extend XDS560 Technology
To enable DSP developers with XDS560 technology, TI has worked closely with companies from the TI third-party network to develop additional XDS560-class products. Five companies are announcing the availability of XDS560-class emulators featuring Ethernet, USB, and PCI bus interfaces to provide designers with a variety of next-generation emulation products for DSP development.
Availability and Pricing
The XDS560 PCI Bus JTAG Scan-Based Emulator is available today for order entry, and can be purchased from the TI E-Store at www.dspvillage.ti.com/xds560pr1 and authorized TI distributors. Pricing is $4,995 each in single-unit quantities, with a special introductory price of $3,995 for a limited time. The emulator includes an extremely flexible 1.5 m cable with a low-profile, credit-card sized cable pod that provides a lightweight, flexible, and convenient connection to the target system, and auto-sensing voltage capabilities that range from 5 V down to 0.5 V that will support both existing and future generations of low-voltage DSP and ARM processors. The XDS560 emulator can be ordered using part number TMDX00560.
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When you consider that the XDS510, one of the very first JTAG emulators if not the very first, is an ISA-bus instrument that's more than a decade old, it's clear that the time is ripe for a major upgrade. This is especially true given that today's CPUs are first of all much faster than those of just a few years ago. According to Bill Novak, product manager for emulation technology, traditional in-circuit emulators start breaking down as far as their capabilities go when CPU speed exceeds 200 MHz. Meanwhile, we get upset if our desktop PCs aren't running in the gigahertz range. Complicating matters even more is that today's processors are on the same die with plenty of peripherals and often multiple cores. You can't expect to get a bondout chip for these complex devices, even though bondouts are the heart and soul of an ICE.
With these trends in mind, you can see why I consider news of the XDS560 to be among the most important emulator announcements in a decade. This relates both to the instrument's operating speed as well as to improved access to its real-time tracing functionality. Recall that the predecessor XDS510 is primarily a Stop Mode emulator, where you take a snapshot of internal activities and review them. There are just some faults that don't show up under static examination, or they can be hidden very, very well. So about three years ago TI added RTDX (Real-Time Data Exchange) to transfer data bidirectionally between the target processor and the host platform, but it ran at 10–20 kB/s.
Now, high-speed RTDX on the 560 runs at 2 MB/s. So how did TI reach this new level, anyway? As it turns out, that's a very critical question with plenty of implications. The answer, however, lies only partially with the emulator alone, and just as much in the target devices. Specifically, to implement HS-RTDX, the target must have a special peripheral on the silicon. This fact, in turn, means that devices now fall into four categories based on the level of XDS560 support:
- The number of chips with the top level of support is as yet somewhat limited by the fact that when the chips were originally architected they had to have the on-chip peripherals, and the XDS560 has been in development only for the past year or two. Today you can get this level with the TMS320C621x, C671x, and C55x v2. As you might expect, most new chip families will include the on-device support needed to work fully with the XDS560. One group with announced support consists of future versions of the C64x family, and support for the C2000 family is planned for this year.
- Next comes a larger group of chips, those designed before HS-RTDX was defined, and they have support only for standard RTDX, albeit at a sometimes accelerated throughput rate. In this group are the C64x v1.0, C620x, C670x, C54x, OMAP 1510, and ARM7/ARM9 devices.
- In the third group are processors that are "basic emulation enabled" and can work the XDS560 when driver support becomes available for them. Into this group belong the C24x, C27x, and C28x—the latter two will support standard RTDX.
- In the final group are processors not supported by the XDS560: C2x, C20x, C3x, C4x, C5x, and C8x.
And before leaving the topic of support for target devices, I wanted to know what target resources— especially memory—are required to run with the XDS560. The answer, says Novak, is a small kernel that for RTDX takes 2 k bytes, and for HS-RTDX takes double that amount.
When speaking about support for various devices, it's also interesting to look at the product photo and note that the pod close to the connector at the target end is not a personality module. That's unlike most ICEs, where you need a separate personality pod for each target. This unit as is works with all the supported devices. Also of interest is something you might at first consider mundane: the cable. It's actually a highly advanced flat coax cable that, despite carrying data at rates as much as 100 times faster than its predecessor, is reported by initial users to have better immunity to static and EM pulses than the cable on the 510 ever had.
Beyond the transfer speed of real-time emulation data, another major feature of the XDS560 is the increased speed at which you can download programs from the development system to target devices. When compared to the XDS510, the increase is at least a factor of two, and can be as much as 8× faster on devices such as the C5402. This improvement doesn't rely at all on features in target silicon; instead, it arises from optimizations in the drivers as well as a C6202 in the emulator interface hardware.
Finally, you can see from the press release that TI is touting its Advanced Event Triggering. Well, if you've worked with emulators before, you'll quickly see that they really haven't added much in the way of raw functionality. What they have done, though, is developed a Code Composer Studio plug-in that makes it much, much easier to access these features. For example, it's possible to create a multilevel state machine for a complex trigger condition. Now you do so by dragging and dropping items on the user-interface screen to create an event-sequence program that uses variables, locations, and actions. And because you're defining trigger setups with such a high level of abstraction, you can also move seamlessly away from chips that TI supports.
A final word, this time about price. The "limited-time" special of $3995 puts the XDS560 at exactly the same price point as the 510, and TI says they will maintain that price as long as the market seems receptive. Meanwhile, you can still purchase 510-class emulators from third parties, and prices for those units are bound to drop due to feature competition from the 560. So if you don't need all this power, you've at least got a bargaining chip when haggling on prices with JTAG emulators from third-party suppliers.
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